Odia Dictionaries, 1811-1942

Dictionaries play an important role in the development of any language. These reflect the growth of the language and also help in strengthening the use of it. Dictionaries are being compiled in all languages for this reason. The first dictionary in Odia language was compiled by the great poet Upendra Bhanja (c.1670-1740). This was a rhyming dictionary – Gitabhidhan – which listed the words ending with similar letters to help in composing rhyming poetry. This was written around 1710 but printed in 1870. The first Odia “dictionary” of the modern times was Mohun Prasad Thakoor’s ‘Vocabulary’ published in 1811. This was more a collection of Odia words arranged by subjects along with English meaning and pronunciation to help the non-Odia missionaries and administrators. The dictionary by Rev. Amos Sutton and colleagues, published in 3 volumes during 1941-43 was the first major dictionary covering English-Odia, Odia-Odia and Odia-English presentations.

Many dictionaries followed over the decades to enrich the Odia language. Some noteworthy attempt among these were Utkal Abhidhan (J Rao, 1891), Sabdatattwabodha Abhidhan (G Nandasharma, 1916), Purnachandra Odia Bhasakosha (GC Praharaj, 1931-40) and Pramoda Abhidhan (P Deb, 1942), published during the centenary of Sutton’s work. Still more dictionaries continued to be published, but these have not kept up with the time by incorporating newer words and ideas. However, a few specialised attempts kept the hopes of finding new directions alive.

Digital versions of the major Odia dictionaries published between 1811 and 1942 can be accessed from this page. The larger dictionaries have been provided with searchable indexes with links to the pages. to help in finding the desired words. Most of these files are under 15 mb, but a few large files are present and their file sizes have been shown in red. These have been kept as a whole for the index to work. All files can be opened.previewed/downloaded through the links provided in the table below.